Top cop admitted I was let down, says priest's 'rape victim'

Kelly told Mary 'she'd not been treated properly' in the initial investigation

- PAUL HEALY

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THE Garda Commissioner has admitted to a woman who alleges she was raped by a priest that she was not treated properly in the original Garda investigation.

Mother of four Mary McCarthy alleges that she was raped twice by a priest in Co Mayo in 1990.

But her case was ultimately investigated by a detective who was himself sued over an alleged rape in an unsuccessful civil action, and was re-investigated years later.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) refused to take Ms McCarthy's claims to trial in early 2006, and in a subsequent review of the case by gardai in 2022, once again declined a Garda recommendation to bring any charges against the priest who she had accused.

Ms McCarthy said: “In January of 2006 I was told there would be no prosecution and I wasn't given any reason. I was heartbroken. Then it emerged that the garda who investigated my crime was sued by a woman who claimed he raped her.

“I fought and fought then for many years for it to be reopened and it eventually was after I wrote to [former commissioner] Drew Harris. The Gardai recommended charges but there was still no prosecution.”

But now Ms McCarthy has had a major meeting with Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who told her that she was not properly treated in the initial investigation.

Gardai do not refute that the Commissioner acknowledged the serious harm suffered by Ms McCarthy and that the Garda chief told her that “as a victim she was not treated the way she should have been or would now be treated as a victim if the allegation was to happen now.”

PRIVACY